Hannah Jensen
The trends in public health are constantly changing and
there are always new trends surfacing. I call St. Marks Hospital in South Salt
Lake City, Utah because this may be somewhere I want to live in the future. I
talked to an ER registered nurse named Kasi Moore and she said that the top 5
public health community trends at St. Marks is immunizations, drug abuse, nosocomial
infections, wellness programs, and also heart attack and stroke awareness
programs.
Right now there is a big push for immunizations for the public.
At this time of year, flu shots are the most common immunizations. A lot of
people think that vaccinations in children can lead to autism although studies
do not back this up. Because of these preconceived notions, a lot parents are opting
out of getting their children vaccinated. This may not be causing immediate
problems in society today, but later on down the road it is expected that a lot
people will be contracting infections and diseases that could have been avoided
or prevented with an immunization or vaccine.
A huge epidemic in the medical field right now is the prevalence
of drug abuse and the amount of drug abusers is increasing. There is a concern
in public health for the amount of people using illegal substances, especially methamphetamines
and heroine. Methamphetamines are the main concern. There are concerns for
people who are cooking methamphetamine in the area for their health and also
the health of the individuals who live around them. There is a big push to
educate the people who are cooking and using methamphetamine to inform people
of the dangers. Health care personnel’s are being trained to be able to
identify addiction problems in patients when they come in to be able to help
end the drug abuse problems seen in the area.
When talking about infections, infections that are
acquired in the health care setting are of particular concern right now. Any infection
that is acquired in the health care field is called a nosocomial infection and
the amount of nosocomial infections is increasing. These infections affected the
health personnel that work in the medical field but they also affect the
patients who are being treated in that medical facility. The most common
nosocomial infection that is being spread is methicillin-resistant
staphylococcus aureus(mersa). Mersa is a staph infection that cannot be killed
with certain antibiotics and this kind of infection can be very dangerous. Another
concern along the lines of infections is the growing prevalence of antibiotic
resistant infections.
A lot of public health concerns are preventable if the
general public were only educated about these issues. There is a big push for
wellness programs in the medical field. At St. Marks they are hosting wellness
programs with incentives attached. If someone attends one of their wellness
programs, that individual gets a $400 reward and that money can be used
anywhere towards their health. The $400 could be used for copays, prescriptions,
and other similar things. The wellness programs do health screens on people, help
them come up with plans to help improve their health, and help them to carry
out that plan. If people do carry out that plan, that is when they get the $400
reward.
Along the lines of prevention, there is also a lot of
educating going on about heart attacks and strokes. A lot of the general public
does not know much about heart attacks and strokes. They do not know how to
identify either of these serious conditions when they are starting, and that is
when it is most important for them to get to the doctor. Catching either of
these health risks during early onset is when the risk can be helped most by
health personnel. More people are dying each year from heart attacks and
strokes and so medical personnel are taking steps at education people about the
signs and symptoms, lifestyles that can cause either a heart attack or a
stroke, and how to prevent both of these health risks.
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